 |  |
| |
The history of Color Country is as diverse and colorful as the land it occupies. The names of the towns and rivers reflect the melting pot of various religious beliefs and cultures. The land - so beautiful and yet so rugged - was among the last to be explored in the nation's lower 48 states.
In the beginning...
Although small groups of nomads roamed the land as long as 9000 years ago, it is the Anasazi Indians (The Ancient Ones) that open the curtain to our history of Southern Utah. The Anasazi were farmers, hunters and accomplished masons. They inhabited the region from about 1 A.D. to their disappearance in 1300 A.D. Today, the remains of a large Anasazi community can be seen at the Anasazi Indian Village State Park in Boulder.
The Paiute Indians were the next major occupants of the area. Many of the towns and areas in southwestern Utah have Paiute names such as Kanab (willows) and Panguitch (big fish).
Establishing trails
In 1776, Escalante and Dominguez, Franciscan priests, led an expedition through the area, searching for a direct route from New Mexico to California. Fifty years later, fur trader Jedediah Smith found a route from the Great Salt Lake south to the Colorado River, and west to the Pacific. It became part of the Old Spanish Trail. U.S. Army Captain John Fremont documented the area when he traveled the Old Spanish Trail in 1844. These trails opened the West to trade and settlement.
Arrival of the Mormons
Seeking religious freedom, Mormon leader Brigham Young led a group of followers westward from Illinois to Utah in 1847. They arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley on July 24. Today Pioneer Day is annually celebrated throughout the state.
As more Mormon pioneers came west and settled in the Great Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young sent explorers southward to scout for new settlement locations. In 1851, Parowan (evil waters) became the first colony to be settled in southern Utah.
Life in Southern Utah
Pioneer life was difficult, filled with hard work, poor living conditions, food shortages, droughts and floods. Iron Mission State Park in Cedar City has wagons, tools and other artifacts on display that were once used by the pioneers.
In the late 1850s tensions rose between the Mormons and the government, and the Mormons believed they were in a state of war. In 1857, a group of immigrants from Arkansas stopped to rest at Mountain Meadows while en route to California along the Old Spanish Trail. Hostilities flared and the Mormons and their Indian cohorts attacked the party and killed 120 people. The event is known as the Mountain Meadow Massacre. A memorial to those killed in the incident now marks this historical site located 32 miles northwest of St. George on U-18.
During the next several years, colonies were settled west of the Markagunt Plateau. Iron deposits were discovered near Cedar City and it became the first iron refinery west of the Mississippi River. Beaver, with its flowing river, was settled in 1856. St. George, the largest of the settlements, was founded in 1861 and became Brigham Young's winter home. A temple was built, and today it the oldest Mormon temple in the world still in use. During the Civil War, cotton was grown in Utah's Dixie and processed at the Old Cotton Mill in Washington.
To the east of the Markagunt Plateau, a group of families settled Panguitch in 1864. They built a fort for protection against Indian attacks. Another fort was built near the present day city of Kanab. Both were abandoned during the Black Hawk War. The war between the whites and the Indians began in 1865 and lasted three years. Kanab and Panguitch were both re-established after the war.
In the early 1870s, surveyor John Wesley Powell led an expedition in southern Utah. His maps and journals helped establish roads and towns throughout the area.
In 1874, Brigham Young established the United Order of Enoch in most southern Utah towns. The experiment in communal living failed in most settlements, but it was successful in Orderville and lasted the better part of a decade.
Originally called Potato Valley when first discovered in 1866, the town of Escalante wasn't settled until 1875. Five years later, Mormon settlers sent to colonize the San Juan Mission east of the Colorado River traveled from Paragonah to Escalante, then made a wagon road southeast toward the Colorado. There they cut a passage through the rock and lowered their wagons over the 1200 foot-high cliff to the canyon floor and the Colorado River. This historic feat is known as the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition.
Polygamy was one of the beliefs of the Mormon faith. In 1882, the practice of plural marriage was outlawed by the U.S. government and was later discontinued by the Mormons. This action had a direct influence on Utah becoming the 45th state on January 4, 1896.
The last frontier in Utah, the town of Boulder, was settled in 1889. Isolated in a remote and rugged area, Boulder still received mail by mule in 1935. Today paved Scenic Byway 12 links Boulder with the rest of the state.
As time passed, trails became roads, settlements became cities and towns. Some of the land was set aside as national parks, state parks, national forests, and public lands to preserve and protect them for everyone's enjoyment.
Each community has its own story. Check with local visitor centers, libraries, and book stores to learn more on the intriguing history of southern Utah.
 |  |